Free Essays - Comparing Odysseus and Medea :: comparison compare contrast essays

Free Essays on Homers Odyssey Odysseus and Medea      Let me hear no smooth talkof death from you, Odysseus, light of councils.Better, I say, to break cover  as a farm handfor some poor nation man, on iron rations,than lord it over all the exhausted dead.   expert before restless Odysseus leaves Circe, she tells him that he must go down into blaze to visit the shade of Teiresias, the blind prophet who advises Odysseus of his homecoming (the Wanderings). He hence goes on to meet the shades of the queens and lovers of dead heroes and finally the heroes themselves. In the quotation cited, Odysseus is talking with Achilles, the greatest hero of the Trojan War. Achilles, while alive, was richly cognizant of his choice between a long smell fatigued in obscurity or a short invigoration, filled with glory. He chose the latter. I suppose Achilles quickly realized after he died that fame has no meaning for you after youre dead. In retrospect, he understood that death gives meaning, and fills bingle up with the passion for life. Every action, however mundane, is filled with the miracle of life and completes itself when atomic number 53 interacts with others. This is what Achilles meant when he asks Odysseus about his son and his former kingdom--never mind the dead, what are the life story doing? Achilles yearns to be back among the living. This theme of death giving meaning to life is prevalent throughout the Odyssey. Hell is death, heaven is now, in life, in the content of time and action. Odysseus nearly died of homesickness (or boredom) when Kalypso detained him on her island, hoping to make him her immortal husband. Odysseus knew if he drank that ambrosia, life would be eternal, youd have a beautiful house and a babe for a wife, but things would guide terribly vapid after a certain point. Immortality is death, in this sense. Finally, it is Athena (thought, action) who convinces the gods (who are, I think, jealous of us mor tals) to let Odysseus off the island and back into his life. It is interesting to note that even Hermes couldnt wait to get off Kalypsos island--who would willingly come here? There is no urban center of men nearby. . . . . Ultimately, Odysseus journey to Ithaka is about embracing ones life, accepting the challenges, the dangers, pitfalls, and joys, with courage, tenacity and a keen sense of what it takes to maintain balance in ones life.